Evelyn Farkas announced last month her decision to leave the Pentagon after five years during which she advised three secretaries of defense and played a major role in securing $244 million in military support for Ukraine. | Getty

Pentagon’s top Russia expert pushed tougher policy

The Pentagon's former top Russia policy expert, who stepped down last week, sought to get the Obama administration to take a harder line with Moscow — and remains concerned that Russian President Vladimir Putin will test the U.S. and its allies in other places.

Evelyn Farkas, who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia until last Friday, made clear in an exit interview with reporters on Wednesday that her departure "was not motivated by policy differences” that could not be bridged.

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But she acknowledged she advocated for the administration to do more to deter Russia, including providing “lethal, defensive assistance to Ukraine, primarily anti-tank weapons.” She and others at the Pentagon advocating lethal aid have been overruled by the White House.

She also said that the administration should review its force posture in Europe and consider putting more troops further east and that top U.S. officials should spend more time in the region.

“We need more high-level attention being paid to the countries that feel directly threatened by Russia,” Farkas said.

Farkas announced last month her decision to leave the Pentagon after five years, during which she advised three secretaries of Defense and played a major role in securing $244 million in military support for Ukraine. Her departure comes at a sensitive time for the administration, which is struggling to figure out how to deter Russian aggression in Ukraine and its new bombing campaign against Syrian rebels to prop up Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.

Farkas said she was proud of her work at the Defense Department but painted a grim picture of U.S. relations with Russia.

She said she believes Putin is seeking to be a counter to the United States on the world stage and that Ukraine and Syria might not be the last of his military adventures.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he tried to counter-balance us elsewhere,” she said, noting that there was some concern in the administration that if Putin saw an opening, he might try to “test NATO.”

She added: “I do think that we need to, unfortunately, do a better job of really understanding what Russia and the Kremlin’s interests are. They have, thus far, prioritized their security interests over their economic interests.”

She insisted, though, that she wasn’t leaving the administration with any hard feelings, explaining that now was “a good time personally for me to leave.”

“I will say that certainly I advocated for things internally, and I have personal views that may be further afield or may be slightly different from what the current administration position is, but I’ve always felt that I gave my advice and was listened to and we had a full hearing and we have a very healthy inter-agency process.”

She demurred when asked about her post-Pentagon plans.

“I’m going to take my time to decide exactly what is next, and I’ll leave it at that,” Farkas said.